On Friday, local officials broke ground on a new alternative sentencing facility coming to Boulder County. The facility, set to replace halfway houses and accommodate work release convicts, will not be the only construction on Airport Road, with the jail’s plans to add a new booking room and additional upstairs space in 2025.
Boulder County Sheriff’s Office Division Chief Jeff Goetz said the new booking room would address increased workflow and the new upstairs space would have 60 beds that could be used as a behavioral unit or intake. With the completion of the project expected to be a year and nine months out, Goetz said the plan for how to use the space may change over time but right now a behavioral unit is more likely.
“The jail population has changed dramatically and we’re looking at utilizing that as a type of behavioral unit instead of new intakes,” Goetz said. “So those that are trying to improve so they don’t come back to jail or take a lot longer to come back to jail if they do so, that area would be designed and run through our mental health unit and our classifications teams to try and help that population.”
The upcoming changes to the jail is one part of a series of updates, some of which have already taken place. In June 2021, the jail opened remodeled administrative offices. A new courtroom opened earlier this year.
The courtroom, which is now four times bigger and has stronger security, cost $5.3 million, according to Division Manager for the Community Justice Services Monica Rotner. Another $7.9 million was shelled out, Rotner said, for the administration wing, with a larger front lobby, conference rooms, locker rooms and a break room.
With plans to rehouse work release convicts in the upcoming alternative sentencing facility, the jail administrators also changed a previous dormitory space into a more secure jail module to accommodate inmates with more serious charges.
Goetz said that when he started working in the jail in the 1990s there were approximately three or four people with murder charges in the jail at a time. As of July 6, he said there are 20 people with murder charges and 17 with accessory to murder charges.
“Ceilings were replaced and hardened up,” Goetz said. “We had new infrastructure designed so you can’t walk out the door now like you could before. So a lot of construction back there.”
Rotner said $5.3 million was spent on the new construction.
The remaining dormitory spaces are currently home to work release and trustees inmates — people who work either inside or outside the jail, Goetz said. Once the alternative sentencing facility opens, these dormitories will become spaces for therapy and training programs.
Overcrowding and mental health in the jail
While the facility won’t open up more space for housing in the jail, Goetz believes the 60 new beds will provide relief to the current overcrowding they are dealing with.
According to Daily Camera archives, when the jail first opened in 1985, it could house 287 people. In 2020, numbers dropped as low as 207 due to release of inmates for health and safety concerns. With 540 total beds available, the jail now has around 430 inmates today.
Last fall, Goetz said he had 20 people sleeping in cots on the floor of the gymnasium and 10 sleeping in the booking room due to overcrowding.
“I have very little room to work with,” Goetz said. “With the population we have, not everyone can be double bunked. All but about 15 of our cells are double bunked. If you and I don’t get along, we can’t share a cell together because somebody’s gonna get hurt.”
Overcrowding is also the result of arrest standards shifting closer to what they were before the pandemic and efforts to reduce inmate numbers. As more people are booked, the jail has struggled to maintain enough staffing to accommodate the growing population.
In addition, Goetz said a majority of the population is pre-trial. Part of it is due to people unable to pay bond, but Goetz also believes as the prevalence of serious charges increase, court cases get longer and people remain in jail.
Goetz also attributed the crowded jail to the backlogs at state hospitals due to understaffing. When arrested, a person is evaluated by hospital staff and if they are considered to present a serious mental health concern, they are required to be transported to a state hospital within eight days. Goetz said on July 6 he had 54 inmates waiting to go to the state hospital — some of whom have been waiting for over eight months due to the hospital’s inability to take them.
“Jails are not where mental health populations belong,” Goetz said.
Approximately 52% of the jail population have a diagnosed mental health disorder, according to Goetz.
With a lack of access to state hospitals, Goetz said the jail has expanded mental health care for inmates. Mental health offices in the jail were expanded as a part of the updates to administrative offices. The jail also has a specific 18 bed module run by Restoring Inmates Safely and Effectively (RISE), a competency restoration program, according to Goetz.
On July 1, 2022, the Colorado General Assembly established a bill prohibiting jails with over 400 beds from placing individuals with mental health concerns in solitary confinement. Previously the threshold for solitary lockdown was 23 hours, now it’s 21 hours and 45 minutes.
“The intent behind the bill is awesome,” Goetz said. “It’s to get people out of, what some people call, solitary lockdown or being on lockdown more during the day than they’re being allowed out.”
But Goetz said the jails weren’t built for the populations they have today, making bills like this hard for jail staff to implement.
“So if I’ve got 15 inmates that have to be out two hours and 15 minutes a day, what’s 15 times two hours and 15 minutes?” Goetz said. “It’s more than 24 hours.”
Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty emphasized the importance of understanding that the maximum sentence in jail is 364 days, meaning convicted inmates in jail will soon be returning to the community.
“We’re going to do a better job of ensuring that the people who are appropriate for transition to the community and in need of services are getting those provided to them in a safe and secure environment before returning to Boulder,” Dougherty said.
‘It’s kind of cool to finally see it happen’
A group of county leaders came together to analyze data from a 2016 report entitled, “Jail Overcrowding in Boulder County: A Comprehensive Assessment and Recommendations for Change.” The report was prepared by the Justice System Partners under a contract with the Boulder County Commissioners and the Boulder County Sheriff.
The 2017 offender management solutions group members consisted of 11 different people from various positions in community services and law enforcement, including former Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle.
Pelle, who retired in January after 20 years, said the main takeaway from the report he noticed was that due to overcrowding at the jail, it was creating an inability to properly house inmates and staff.
“We couldn’t do progressive things like transition living with people going back into the community,” Pelle said in an interview with the Daily Camera. “The other glaring aspect for me was the fact that we were contracting to for-profit companies. When the government is incarcerating people, Boulder County expects recidivism and that just hasn’t happened with private vendors, but I think we’re going to change that.”
Pelle said he was inspired by Larimer County’s Alternative Sentencing Department, and after taking several tours of Larimer’s facility with Boulder County Commissioners, Pelle said the county leaders started talking about what could be done within Boulder.
Shortly thereafter, the plan was conceived to introduce a .185% sales tax initiative to help fund a new alternative facility that voters passed in 2018 by an overwhelming 75%. The sales tax is scheduled to last for five years and raise roughly $50 million to pay for not only the facility but also much needed upgrades to the jail itself.
“I think the sales tax ended up being so largely supported because we were talking about building an alternative space rather than building a bigger jail,” Pelle said. “A lot of people got together to work on this and I championed the campaign for the sales tax, spoke to rotaries and city councils, you name it, so it’s kind of cool to finally see it happen.”
Building a better way
Rotner said that the overall findings of the 2016 report were that a consolidation of alternative sentencing and offender management programs into one facility would provide better outcomes, along with new revenues and more flexibility in programs and staffing.
“The new facility was designed to address a multitude of considerations in Boulder County with regards to gaps and opportunities for individuals involved in the Criminal Justice system and the staff that work there,” Rotner said.
It was also determined that construction of a comprehensive facility would not only ease jail crowding, but also reduce security risks and provide better programming for inmates.
“The alternative sentencing facility puts everything under one roof,” Rotner said. “The new building will house all community corrections and work release sentences, as well as provide other sentencing programs to meet the behavioral health and public safety needs of the community and resident population.”
When completed, the 46,000 sq. foot facility will hold 250 beds for work release, community corrections and residential criminal justice behavioral health interventions. Rotner said the behavioral health interventions are still in the design stages of conceptualization. Cohorts of clients will be moved gradually into the facility and is expected to be fully occupied by the first quarter of 2026.
“The ASF will allow for jail beds to be reserved for offenders that need to be in a hard bed in a jail secure building,” Rotner said. “The ASF will also expand access to programs to accomplish overall recidivism reduction in the community. This should have a substantial positive impact on both jail overcrowding and public safety.”
According to Building Services Division Lead Architect James Butler, the total cost set aside for the Alternative Sentencing Facility is currently at $35,677,255. This is said to include an addition to the jail central plant that will connect to the new building.
The central plant is the part of the jail where all of the boilers are housed, and it will require expansion for the additional utilities it will supply. There will also be underground utility connections from the central plant to the sentencing facility, and this centralized heating system will reduce costs and maintenance.
“The whole design team is honored to be involved in this facility, which will have access to natural light and fantastic views,” Butler said. “We have also specified durable and timeless finishes to make the building a great space to be in.”
While the new building is being constructed, work release, community corrections and behavioral health clients will continue to be housed and treated at CoreCivic and Intervention Community Corrections Services.
Rotner said that while the operating budget of the sentencing facility will not result in cost savings initially, long-term savings could be accomplished by overall recidivism reduction in the county, which will be measured as the facility is operated.
“I just want to thank the people and county for supporting this because it’s a large ask for people to tax themselves to support something like this,” Pelle said. “I feel very blessed to have served a county that’s as progressive and generous.”